Health

Gaydar and the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) have teamed up to offer a new online support group for gay men living with HIV.  THT staff will be on Gaydar in the ‘THT HIV+ Groupwork’ chatroom from 5.30 to 8.30pm three evenings a week.
 
The online group gives men the opportunity to ‘speak’ to other men with HIV, share their experiences of life with HIV, get support and have any questions around HIV or sexual health answered.
 
THT staff will offer confidential, non-judgemental support and information on HIV.  As well as chatting publicly there is also an option to send private messages to the THT workers.  The online group is not a counselling service, but will be able to give details of counselling services if requested.
 
The group is aimed at gay men in London and is funded by the Pan London HIV Prevention Partnership.

Over a third of people with HIV experienced HIV related discrimination in the last year according to research released today.
 
‘What Do You Need?’ is a national survey of people with HIV undertaken by Sigma Research and commissioned by Terrence Higgins Trust and the Department of Health. It found that 36% of respondents had faced HIV related discrimination in the previous year. Discrimination came from family members, their own community, doctors and other health professionals.
 
Marc Thompson, Acting Head of Health Promotion at Terrence Higgins Trust said "Despite provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act, large numbers of people with HIV are facing discrimination on a regular basis. In the family, this could be name-calling, marginalisation or even issues like the refusal of family members to share kitchen equipment. People with HIV also reported breaches of confidentiality or refusal of services from health or care professionals".

Read more: A third of people with HIV face discrimination

Men who are more sexually active in their 20s and 30s may run a higher risk of prostate cancer, research suggests.

The Nottingham University study spoke to 800 men on how often they had sex or masturbated. Those who were most active while younger had more chance of developing cancer later in life. The researchers said higher levels of sex hormones could lead to a bigger sex drive and the cancer, the journal BJU International reported.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with well over 30,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
It affects the prostate gland, which is found close to the bladder and makes a component of semen.
The Nottingham team, led by Dr Polyxeni Dimitropoulou, recruited more than 400 men diagnosed with prostate cancer, then compared their answers to 409 men thought to be free of the disease. As well as questions about how often they had been sexually active from puberty onwards, they were asked how many sexual partners they had had and whether they had been diagnosed with any sexual infections. Roughly the same proportion of both groups, 59%, said they had engaged in sexual activity 12 times a month or more in their 20s, falling to 48% in their 30s, 28% in their 40s and 13% in their 50s.
Almost two-fifths of the prostate cancer group had had six female partners or more, compared with less than a third of the non-cancer group.

Read more: Sex Drive Linked to Prostate Cancer

The TUC is calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people (LGBT) at the Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) national commemoration event in Coventry today.

HMD itself is on Tuesday (27 January), on the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.6 million men, women and children were killed in the Nazi holocaust.

HMD aims to prevent the holocaust being forgotten or repeated, and serves to remind people of the crimes and racism of both the holocaust and of more recent genocides across the world.

Read more: TUC calls for end to discrimination and hatred on Holocaust Memorial Day

A leading UK HIV campaigner who has strived to transform attitudes towards HIV/Aids and to the role of gay men and women in society has been knighted.

Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, was recognised for his 20-year service to healthcare.
Knighthoods also go to Royal College of Surgeons past president Bernard Ribeiro and president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Neil Douglas.

Professor Sally Davies, director of research and development at the Department of Health becomes a Dame for her services to Medicine, as does Liz Fradd, a nursing academic and fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, for her services to nursing.
Dr Nigel Lightfoot, chief adviser at the Health Protection Agency, is honoured with a CBE for the crucial role he played in the polonium 210 poisoning incident in 2006, where he oversaw the professional work.

Read more: THT Executive Knighted